There has been a new twist to the trial the Dr Stephen Opuni, a former Chief Executive Officer, Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), and two others.
The latest devepment is that all the accused have opted to file a submission of no case in their trial for defrauding by false pretences and willfully causing financial loss to the State.
They have also been accused of money laundering, corruption by public officer and contravention of the Public Procurement Act.
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This follows publications by some local media houses as well as a post by Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusawgu, John Jinapor, that per the 2021 budget statement, only GHS1.7 billion of the allocated GHS19 billion for issues of COVID-19 in 2020 was utilized.
Media reports also suggested that the rest of the money was used for expenditures unrelated to COVID-19.
But speaking at a Press Conference, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, clarified that the amount quoted by the media was for just two items under the COVID-19 related expenditures.
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“The questions regarding Mr Domelevo’s date of birth which formed the recent basis for the President’s letter were not handled in accordance with the Constitutional directive in Article 23. The actions of the office of the President and the Audit Service affirm our belief that Mr Domelevo has been unfairly targeted,” the Coalition’s Spokesperson said.
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The Ghana Integrity Initiative has asked government to show more commitment to the fight against corruption to build trust and public confidence.
“We have not seen much leadership in the fight against corruption in the country. We need to see bold initiatives from government through effective preventive mechanism against corruption and administrative sanction to deter potential corrupt officials”.
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The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations Against Corruption has requested the Supreme Court of Ghana to determine two cases pending before it on the constitutionality of the Auditor General’s forced ‘accumulated leave’ by President Akufo-Addo.
The group contends that the crux of the issues raised in the two suits are relevant regardless of the current state of affairs; that is the forced retirement of Auditor General Daniel Yaw Domelevo.
“The suits border on the broader issues of whether or not a President could exercise administrative authority over Independent Constitutional Bodies (ICBs). Therefore, it is important for the Supreme Court to deal with these suits expeditiously to prevent any such actions by a future President,” said Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante, Director, Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).
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The tussle between the Auditor-General, Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo, and the Audit Service Board has reached a crescendo, with the board writing to inform the appointing authority, the President, that the former has reached retirement age.
This follows the board’s alleged findings that Mr Domelevo had changed his date of birth on the records of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) from June 1, 1960 to June 1, 1961.
“Records made available to the board indicate that your date of retirement was 1st June 2020 and as far as the Audit Service is concerned you are deemed to have retired.
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Ghanaians have identified bribery, favouritism and fraud as the main form of corruption in the country a survey conducted by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) under the Accountability, Rule of law and Anti-Corruption Programme (ARAP) has established.
The survey, which focused on citizens’ awareness and knowledge of corruption, its causes and effect in Ghana established that corruption was endemic.
The NCCE as part of its civic education engagements has since 2017 been involved in numerous education programmes aimed at supporting Ghana’s anti-corruption and public accountability drive.
The Survey report made available to the Ghana News Agency at Tema on Friday captured a sampled size of 4,220 Ghanaians between 20 to 29 years. The survey used purposive, systematic, and simple random sampling techniques, from 108 districts, On the level of corruption, both studies-a baseline in 2017 and an end-line survey in 2020, established that corruption was high.
Majority of the baseline study respondents representing 91.4 per cent also ranked the level of corruption as high compared with 86.8 per cent in the end-line.
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French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to three years in jail, two of them suspended, for corruption.
He was convicted of trying to bribe a judge in 2014 – after he had left office – by suggesting he could secure a prestigious job for him in return for information about a separate case.
Sarkozy, 66, is the first former French president to get a custodial sentence.
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Anti-graft campaigner Vitus Azeem is demanding a probe into circumstances leading to the signing of the Covid-19 testing contract at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).
It follows details alleging that the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) was short-changed by Frontiers HealthCare Services which was contracted by the government to conduct Covid-19 tests.
Documents sighted by JoyNews show that the company agreed to pay $10 to the GACL per antigen test conducted.